pean armies penetrated; even there
European cupidity and enterprise were exercised.

As late as 1742, the territories of the English in India scarcely
extended beyond the precincts of the towns in which were located the
East India Company's servants. The first English settlement of
importance was on the Island of Java; but, in 1658, a grant of land
was obtained on the Coromandel coast, near Madras, where was erected
the strong fortress of St. George. In 1668, the Island of Bombay was
ceded by the crown of Portugal to Charles II., and appointed the
capital of the British settlements in India. In 1698, the English had
a settlement on the Hooghly, which afterwards became the metropolis of
British power.

[Sidenote: French Settlements in India.]

But the Dutch, and Portuguese, and French had also colonies in India
for purposes of trade. Louis XIV. established a company, in imitation
of the English, which sought a settlement on the Hooghly. The French
company also had built a fort on the coast of the Carnatic, about
eighty miles south of Madras, called Pondicherry, and had colonized
two fertile islands in the Indian Ocean, which they called the Isle of
France and the Isle of Bourbon. The possessions of the French were
controlled by two presidencies, one on the Isle of France, and the
other at Pondicherry.

[Sidenote: La Bourdonnais and Dupleix.]

When the war broke out between England and France, in 1744, these two
French presidencies were ruled by two men of superior genius,--La
Bourdonnais and Dupleix,--both of them men of great experience in
Indian affairs, and both devoted to the interests of the company, so
far as their own personal ambition would permit. When Commodore
Burnet, with an English squadron, was sent into the Indian seas, La
Bourdonnais succeeded in fitting out an expedition to oppose it, and
even contemplated the capture of Madras. No decisive action was fought
at sea; but the French governor succeeded in taking Madras. This
success displeased the Nabob of the Carnatic, and he sent a letter to
Dupleix, and complained of the aggression of his countrymen in
attacking a place under his protection. Dupleix, envious of the fame
of La Bourdonnais, and not pleased with the terms of capitulation, as
being too favorable to the English, claimed the right of annulling the
conquest, since Madras, when taken, would fall under his own
presidency.

The contentions between these two Frenchmen prevented La Bourdonna